16 August of
last year the FPSO North Sea Producer was beached in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
The ship was allowed to leave the UK based on the false promise that it would
be further operationally used in the Tin Can port in Nigeria.
One year on, the battle to
hold the owners and cash buyers accountable for the illegal export of the FPSO
is not over.
The North Sea Producer (ex
Dagmar Maersk) was deployed in the McCulloch field in the North Sea,
transporting and extracting oil from the UK continental shelf for 17 years, and
was owned by the North Sea Production Company, a single-ship joint venture
between the Danish A.P. Moeller Maersk and the Brazilian Odebrecht. Once the
field closed, the FPSO North Sea Producer was laid up in Teesport for a year
while the owners were looking for buyers.
For scrapping purposes the
ship was only allowed to be sold to a facility within the OECD as any export of
hazardous waste outside the OECD is in breach of International and EU law.
However, selling the FPSO to a recycler that could safely handle all the
hazards of the ship within the OECD would have meant that the owners would not
have made as big a profit as selling it to less scrupulous breakers operating
on tidal beaches in South Asia.
Maersk and Odebrecht thus
settled to sell the ship to the largest vessels’ scrap dealer, cash buyer GMS,
through a St. Kitts and Nevis post box company called Conquistador Shipping
Corporation, and provided the UK authorities with a false contract stating that
the NORTH SEA PRODUCER had found a new owner who would operate the ship in
Nigeria.
Despite the vessel being
under the radar of local communities in Teesside and was well-known in the
shipping industry for needing to be scrapped, the UK authorities relied on the
false contract to allow the FPSO to leave on tug.
Once the ship arrived at
Janata Steel in Chittagong, and upon alerts issued by local NGOs, the
Bangladesh Attorney General of the Department of Environment set up a special
committee to determine the presence of contaminated residues, and to
investigate the ship’s illegal import due to lack of necessary clearances and
false claims that it was hazardous-free. Having operated in the North Sea, the
vessel’s pipelines are likely to contain residues contaminated by radioactive
materials and sulphur.
Other toxics, such as
asbestos and heavy metals, are contained within the structure and paints of the
ship. Upon a request from the Platform’s member organisation Bangladesh
Environmental Lawyers’ Association (BELA), the report on the ship’s condition
was released in June: it’s conclusion was that radioactive residues were found
upon inspection and that further surveys needed to be carried out on the whole
ship.
BELA subsequently succeeded
in getting an injunction on the breaking of the North Sea Producer until
October, which is when the Court will resume the case after the Eid recess.
One year on since the
beaching of the FPSO North Sea Producer, the story is thus far from over. One
year on and there are legal proceedings in the exporting state, the UK, and the
importing state, Bangladesh, to hold Maersk, Odebrecht, GMS and the importers
accountable for their illegal trade of a highly toxic and particularly risky
ship to dismantle.
Source: marine
link. 13 September 2017
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